1. Field of the Invention
The object of this invention is a handle assembly for vehicles, used particularly for illuminating the rear registration plate on automobiles.
The invention has particular, but not necessarily exclusive, application in the sector involved in the production of finished components for the automobile industry.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles, such as automobiles, are widely used. Each one has a means of identification, which is a registration plate with a series of letters and numbers, with one at the front of the vehicle and one at the back.
The front one, as is well known, is not illuminated, while the rear one is well lit, as is required by the law in all countries, in order to make it easier to be read, especially at night.
To make it even easier to read, the registration plate is located in a position in order to make it more legible, and one of these positions is often on the door of the boot.
Since the door is fastened and hinged to the chassis of the car, it obviously has to be opened and closed in some way in order to gain access to the inside of the boot of the car. This leads to the companies involved in the sector requiring a single component which fulfills more than one function. This is made possible by using a handle which allows a hand to be inserted in order to open the boot or for it to be opened by using a control means, and which is also used to house the lighting system for illuminating the rear registration plate.
The said handle, which is a translation from German of the technical term known as xe2x80x9cgriffleistxe2x80x9d, is to be found in a wide variety of more or less similar examples which are very widespread, a fact which certainly does not help in the development of the article, and there are a number of persistent drawbacks to this system, which today are no longer acceptable.
Traditionally, a handle is made up of basically two elements. The first element is a longitudinal support, with an aesthetically pleasing shape used for trimming purposes, also known by the term xe2x80x9cblendexe2x80x9d. The second element, or support, when joined on the bottom side of the first element, allows the lighting equipment used for illuminating the rear registration plate and, where foreseen, the boot opening mechanism to be housed. In the most common solutions, the support element is usually made out of a single piece of moulded plastic and has two distinct seating units, positioned to the side of the central area used as a hand grip. Each seating unit is made in order to position the relative lighting units, made up of a light bulb, a bulb holder and a cover, and which is closed off by a protective lens which sits on a seat around its perimeter, formed by lowering the area close to the access openings for the said seats. While the external side of the support is basically flat, the inside part has a series of sectors and seating areas of various shapes and sizes in order to house the electrical wiring for the lighting units, and in order to attach it to the boot of the car. Basically, it is a single body that is shaped and formed so that none of the internal components may come into contact with each other. Once the support and the trimming are joined together by uniting the various attachment points, there are various parts which are pre-assembled beforehand, that stick out from the back of the support and that are used for attaching it to the metallic part of the boot. These parts may be the holders for the lighting units, while in the middle of the support there is the electro-mechanical boot locking mechanism with its relative socket, used to connect it to the main control unit.
To guarantee a good joint between the handle and the door of the boot, there are a number of holes drilled in the door of the boot where the parts that protrude from the assembled support are inserted. Finally, to avoid water leaking in to the joint of the said two parts, the handle has a soft seal over the whole of its surface.
A second solution, which is used by various automobile manufacturers in order to overcome some of the problems regarding the first solution, foresees the use of box-type modules that are snapped on to the trimming. According to each solution, these modules may include either the lighting unit or the electro-mechanical boot-opening mechanism. For obvious reasons, this type of solution also has a seal between the joint of the handle and the door of the boot.
Yet another solution has been recently adopted -by another automobile manufacturer. This solution also has a trimming or xe2x80x9cblendexe2x80x9d, and which has a pseudo-technical insert attached to it. The characteristic of the said insert is that it has only a single support, which completely integrates the two lateral lighting units of the registration plate. The said support is made from one single, longitudinal element which may be attached to the trimming without fastening it or using adhesives, but by using its back part which is coupled to the longitudinal isolating support base at the ends of the light holders. The said base has a seal made out of flexible material on the opposite side to where the moulded circuit is positioned, and which extends over the whole of the surface which comes into contact with it when the handle is attached to the door of the boot. Finally, the said insert does not operate in conjunction in any way with the boot-opening mechanism. There now follows a brief word regarding the membranes which, when subjected to pressure, act upon the control for the boot-opening mechanism. As was previously observed, there is a specially shaped portion in the handle between the two lighting units that are used to illuminate the registration plate, where it is easy to insert the fingers of a hand so that, by applying a certain pressure at the ends, the boot door may be unlocked and opened. Going further into detail, the fingers press on an area which has a membrane formed on the bottom of the central housing unit. The membrane is made up of at least one perimetral ring with elastic properties, with a stretch of rigid material along its central and internal side portion. On the inside of the said support, a slight deformation of the membrane due to pressure acts upon a lever which, being pivoted, acts upon the micro used for opening the boot
In the solutions described above, there are various drawbacks, some of which are in common.
For example, all the above solutions have a large number of components which obviously have to be organised correctly by the stockhouse personnel.
The use of a large number of components to construct the handle means that the assembly phase is long and arduous, and requires a lot of labour with consequently high labour costs which weigh quite heavily on the overall cost of the product and, thus, on the market price. One of the most immediately felt consequences of using a large number of components, along with the fact that the support unit used to contain the components is not standardised, is that it is not very flexible, not very reliable because of its inherent complex nature and the fact that it is not particularly innovative. These are all aspects that make it difficult to justify the high production costs involved, and which are certainly not in line with the requirements of a dynamic company.
With reference to the first type of handle in particular, one of the most frequent drawbacks is given by the fact that the door of the boot has a large number of holes drilled in it in correspondence with the joint surface of the handle. This may give rise to rust problems if there is an infiltration of water between the components, in spite of the use of a seal, and under certain circumstances, the seal may even worsen the phenomenon.
A second aspect which must certainly not be overlooked, regards the fact that the lighting units, as with the boot door opening switch, are not in a perfectly insulated, waterproof position, and the presence of humidity is quite common which leads to electrical problems.
A further drawback regards the assembly aspect which, in the solutions described in this document, is very long and arduous due to the fact that there are various parts that have to be stuck together, which add to the already high production costs.
A further negative aspect is given by the fact that the boot door opening switch is indirectly operated by the membrane, which means that it has to be extremely complex and oversized.
In the second solution described above, some of these drawbacks appear to have been eliminated by adopting the use of modules. However, it is still quite a complex system, and a soft seal is still required in order to guarantee a certain waterproofing for the equipment and mechanisms contained inside, and must be applied to the entire surface of the back of the support. Bearing the above in mind, it seems evident that even with this solution the problems regarding waterproofing, which is not guaranteed, are still present. From an operational point of view, the assembly is still quite complex and requires long assembly times and a lot of labour.
Finally, even the third solution does not solve the problems previously mentioned and, what is more, gives rise to others. Briefly, this solution also has a seal applied to the entire surface of the back of the handle which is to be attached to the boot door, as with the other solutions. This characteristic undoubtedly leads to poor functioning of the equipment because, while it may prevent water infiltrating into the support, it also covers components which contain conductors, such as the base unit itself, which may lead to localised rust problems.
For this reason, the companies that operate especially in the automobile components supply sector require alternative systems that are also an improvement on the ones currently adopted.
These and other objectives are reached through this invention according to the characteristics in the attached claims, overcoming the problems outlined by means of a handle for vehicles, used particularly for illuminating the rear registration plate of automobiles and for opening the door of the boot, made up of a monolithic trimming and a support inserted into the said trimming, which has pre-assembled units for illuminating the registration plate and, if foreseen, in an intermediate position, a mechanism for operating the unlocking of the boot door. The said support comprises an integrated support made up two longitudinal bodies which are joined together around their perimeters, are waterproof, and in which:
the first body includes a half-casing shaped on the inside surface in order to position the support base for at least one lighting unit and, if required, a mechanism for opening the boot; the said base operates in conjunction with conductor means, and has at least one moulded circuit along one of its sides in order to connect each of the said mechanisms to its respective external controls;
a second body is made up of a counter-shaped cover with, in correspondence with at least one lighting unit, an opening with a means for the protection of the lighting unit and light diffuser, in which the said cover has, if required, a membrane which is flexible under pressure and acts in correspondence with the opening mechanism of the boot;
and in which, inside the said integrated insert, there is a common chamber for the housing of the lighting units, and in which said insert there is an opening through to the outside for passing electrical cables and the connector, with the said opening having a co-moulded seal made out of non-rigid material.
In this way, through the creative contribution that has the effect of constituting an immediate technical progress, various advantages are achieved.
Firstly, it is possible to have an integrated insert which is extremely compact and waterproof, and in which the possibility of the infiltration of water or even the formation of condensation is drastically reduced. In the unlikely event of this happening, the special conformation of the chamber together with its interaction with a flue pipe means that the average temperature of the system and, therefore, the conditions that promote the formation of condensation is reduced. At the same time, under normal conditions, the special conformation of the chamber together with the flue pipe also help to evacuate the heat that is generated by the lighting units, thus avoiding a series of complex problems.
On the other hand, the relatively simple construction by standardising the components, together with a reduction of the number of components that are required, means that there are fewer items to be coded and organised, the product is more reliable and virtually maintenance-free, very flexible and, because of these advantages, extremely interesting for both the manufacturer and the customer.
From a structural point of view, along the back part of the handle/boot door assembly, all the protrusions are eliminated, except for the connector, which previously obliged the manufacturer to indiscriminately perforate the boot of the car. This means that the possibility of rust or corrosion forming in that area is drastically reduced, or even eliminated. The problem has been overcome by eliminating a large part of the surface of the soft, flexible seal which was used on the original handle, helping to create a structure which, in the case of water entering between the trimming and the insert, is able to easily drain off the said water.
In conclusion, these advantages lead to important benefits and a product which costs much less than the previous models without losing anything from a quality point of view, and even improves the product in certain aspects by introducing a high technical content.